Workshop on Law in the EU’s Circular Energy System: Biowaste, Biofuel and Biogas

The European Union’s Energy Strategy, part of the European Green Deal, is central to the aim of achieving a zero net emissions economy by 2050. Central to this strategy is creating a more integrated energy system, with circular energy system, energy efficiency, electrification, and decarbonization at its core. While the transition to direct heating or electrification is neither feasible nor efficient in all end-use applications, many renewable and low-carbon fuels must be used to reduce the consumption of natural gas and fossil fuels. Biofuels and biogases produced from biological waste from agriculture, food and forestry are then a short-term sustainable solution. The scenario, therefore, urges a legal framework that enables a more circular energy system.

The development of the EU’s circular energy system occurs in a complex legal landscape, covering a multi-level jurisdictional system and crossing many economic sectors. Specifically, the key sectors to this transition – agriculture, food, forestry – deal with waste in different ways. Moreover, the current environmental and sectoral regulations of these industries do not envisage and actively discourage circularity within the production process. In order to live up to the promise of a circular energy system – make use of resources that are currently discarded with a view of addressing the urgent climate and energy crises that the EU faces; improve human, animal and plant life; and allow for a more sustainable society without the need to dramatically change our lifestyle – these legal complexities need to be mapped and addressed holistically. This edited volume brings together legal and non-legal academics to develop a roadmap to the transition towards a more EU’s circular energy system.

The workshop will provide authors with the chance of presenting the first draft of their book chapters and receiving feedback from book editors and other authors. The book project is a collaboration of the Florence School of Regulation with Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands).

Organisers:

Lucila de Almeida and Josephine van Zeben

Participation:

Closed to contributors